Starry Night
by DreamingCancer
Summary: A crappy, trying-to-be-sad Ash/Misty romance I wrote. R+R if you want to


DISCLAIMER: Is it absolutely necessary I say "I don't own PokÃ¨mon"? Apparently. I don't own Pokemon. My review, also, a disclaimer, was posted before my comp let me edit this.  
  
This was the kind of thing that happened in corny made-for-TV movies or best-selling romance novels. And when it happened in real life, it happened to figureheads in the news. Never to you, never to anyone you cherished.  
  
Or anyhow, that was what Ash Ketchum had always believed until now. Until now, when he heard the doctor utter those vile, disgusting words: "Misty has cancer."  
  
Cancer! Cancer! It was a joke. A sick joke. It had to be. It just had to be.  
  
But it wasn't. Misty had cancer.  
  
That was six months ago, on Misty's twenty-second birthday, only two weeks after she and Ash had announced their engagement.  
  
And now she was going to die, Ash realized. It really hit him for the first time as he sat there beside her hospital bed, Pikachu perched on his right shoulder, its tiny yellow head lowered with sobriety of the situation.  
  
Misty was asleep. She slept more and more as the hideous disease progressed. The doctors hadn't caught it until it was too late and there was no longer any hope of saving her.  
  
Her characteristic temper and intelligence had remained. Her well of emotional strength had never faded. But physically, Misty was fading fast. The sparkle was gone from her aqua-green eyes and she seemed even thinner and paler now than before. The disease was ever so slowly claiming her and draining her of life.  
  
Tears welled in Ash's soft brown eyes.It wasn't fair! something inside screamed. Why did she have to get sick? Why did she have to die?  
  
"Why?" he asked her sleeping form. "Why are you going to die and abandon me this?"  
  
Suddenly, responding to the sound of the familiar voice, Misty's eyes opened. "Ash?" she whispered, reaching for his hand and grasping it. A smile danced across her face.  
  
Ash just smiled, unable to move either arm, with Misty clinging to his left hand and Pikachu perched on his right shoulder. "You're awake."  
  
"Not for long," she murmured, laughing slightly. "I...I can never stay awake very long."  
  
You won't be able to stay alive for long, Ash thought bitterly. But all he said was, "Maybe, but everything is perfect when you're awake and with me."  
  
"I feel the same way," she coughed. Ash mentally repeated that observation to himself: coughed. A slight flush spread onto her cheeks, giving Misty the illusion of appearing somewhat alive for at least a few seconds. "That part about being with you, of course."  
  
Ash nodded. Even though he smiled, he couldn't stop the tears from falling. Pikachu, sensing something the humans did not at this moment, hopped down from its perch on Ash. "Pika, Pika," it squeaked at Misty before scampering out of the room. Ash grinned, ignoring the tears glistening on his cheeks.  
  
"What did he say?" Misty inquired.  
  
"He said...he said he wants you to get better soon," Ash lied. Pikachu had really said that it hoped Misty did well in the afterlife.  
  
She smiled. "I am better. I'm with you."  
  
Ash blushed. The two of them stared at each other for a long while in silence. Then Misty shut her eyes and spoke: "I'm dying, Ash."  
  
"No...not yet. The doctor said you had another month - " her fiance whispered, at once horrified and saddened.  
  
"He was wrong. I'm dying now."  
  
Ash was incredulous. "No!" he wailed, fresh new tears pouring from his eyes, "no! No! No!"  
  
Misty gave no response to this. She only opened her eyes and gazed at the moon outside the hospital room's small only window, gripping Ash's hand as though she could somehow cling to life that way. "Look at the stars," she told him.  
  
He did, but the tears continued to flow. "Why?"  
  
"They're so beautiful."  
  
"Yes..."  
  
"I'm going to be among them soon. Whenever you're lonely for me, look up at them and know I can see you and that you're looking at me."  
  
"Don't go," he pleaded, pressing his lips against hers. When the kiss ended, her body was cold. Her spirit had fled. It had been their last kiss, her final moment. Misty had given her last breath to him.  
  
Ash, sobbing uncontrollably, turned his gaze toward the stars. 


End file.
